City Council should do its job and appoint Goetz to Park Board

Dianne Rosenberg (front) waits as her lawyers and the lawyers for the city of Cincinnati talk to Common Pleas Judge Charles Kubicki. Rosenberg has asked the judge to determine whether the city must let her keep her Park Board seat.(Photo: The Enquirer/Carrie Blackmore Smith)

It is time for Cincinnati City Council to do its job and confirm Jim Goetz as the next commissioner of the Cincinnati Park Board. Article VII, Section 1 of the Charter of the City of Cincinnati provides that the mayor appoints the members of the Board of Park Commissioners. Mayor Cranley did this (again) last week and (again) appointed Goetz to a term on the Park Board, pursuant to the oral ruling by Judge Charles Kubicki. Pursuant to the Charter (Article III, Section 2), the mayor’s appointments are subject to the advice and consent of City Council.

I strongly urge council to confirm Goetz. I can think of no stronger candidate. Jim’s knowledge and experience will be key to Parks Director Wade Walcutt’s plan to begin to address the needed and overdue rehabilitation of our city’s treasure, the park system.

I have the utmost respect for Diane Rosenberg and the entire Park Board and appreciate the time, talent, and treasure they volunteer in service to our parks. There should be no inference that the board is personally benefitting in any way from their exercise of the public trust in the spending of public Parks funds. I believe the board members, who all serve without compensation, do so out of a genuine love of our city.

Bill Moller (left) and Jim Goetz talk after Cincinnnati Mayor John Cranley announced they will lead an investigation of alleged irregularities and procurement practices of past management of the Metropoitan Sewer District at a press conference at city hall. Molller is former assistant city manager and finance director for the city; Goetz is on city council's internal audit committee and retired CFO of the David Joseph Company. The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy(Photo: The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy)

However, during my time on council, it became apparent that basic audit controls needed to be placed on spending of public funds by the Park Board. Beginning with reporting from the Enquirer after extensive review of public records in early 2015, continuing with a third-party outside fiscal review by Crowe Horvath accounting, asked for by the mayor and ordered by the city manager, and culminating with the State of Ohio Auditor’s annual audit, it is apparent that public funds have been spent without appropriate and required procedures in place.

Some have attempted to misconstrue the city’s desire to place controls on the spending of Park endowment funds. This is not and can not be about elected officials or the city administration wresting control over spending by the Board of Park Commissioners. They can’t and they shouldn’t. Article VII, Section 1 of the Charter of the City of Cincinnati, provides that “Property under the control of the board shall not be transferred, or used for any but park purposes except with the consent of the board.” As the city manager stated in a November 2016 letter to the board: “The Park Board will continue to have sole discretion in the expenditure of the funds.” Yet the power of the board is not unlimited.

As the fiscal review and the State Auditor’s management letter point out, these public funds under the control of the board must be spent in accordance with state law and should have appropriate controls placed on their expenditure. As a constituent board of the City of Cincinnati, failure by the Park Board to observe appropriate controls on the expenditure of funds puts the entire city at risk.

Goetz, chair of the city’s Internal Audit Committee, retired CFO of a large local company, and former corporate internal auditor, is the right man at the right time to serve as a new Park Board commissioner. Council, do your job.

Kevin Flynn is a former Cincinnati councilman and lives in Mount Airy.